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Una seemed to notice his discomfort, because she quickly said, “Well anyway, my darling, I just wanted you to know how proud I am of you. Now, where’s Jake? I want to feed him the scraps from my plate.”
“You probably shouldn’t do that, Ma.” Greid seemed relieved to move on from the subject of himself as he looked around. “Uh…”
“He’s here.” Jake’s snout was still on my thigh, so I looked down to give him a fond smile as I stroked the top of his head. “He’s been such a good boy. Who’s my good boy?” I cooed.
“I am,” Greid said automatically on my other side, rendering the entire table utterly silent.
Trying to keep my face blank, I looked up to see Laki staring at us with their fork raised halfway to their mouth. Daga’s lips were twitching as she looked down and fussed over the babies on her lap. Elern didn’t seem to have heard as he winced, trying to free his ear from a baby’s grasping fingers.
Nuni was frozen in place, his chair still tipped on its back legs, before it thudded to the floor as he sat forward. “Dude. What.”
Oh dear. I forced myself not to look at Greid—and I absolutely could not bring myself to look at his mother—as I frantically tried to think of something to say.
After a couple more seconds of silence, I let out an easy laugh. “What, you’ve never heard of that before? Greid and I answer for Jake all the time.”
“You what?” Nuni’s eyes darted between us.
“Yeah. Like, if Greid asks him if he wants to go for a walk, I’ll be like, ‘Sure, Dad! Sounds fun!’ Loads of people do it with their pets.”
There was another pregnant pause, before Nuni leaned back in his seat with a snort. “That’s so dorky.”
“I know, right?” My voice dripped with sarcasm. “So dorky to love your pets and treat them like part of the family.”
Nuni’s ears fluttered as Daga chuckled.
“We do that with the munchkins. Even put on silly voices for them. Don’t we?” She nudged Elern.
He glanced up. “Huh? Oh, yeah. Made these two have a full-blown conversation yesterday about which type of wood to use for the table I’m building at work.” He shrugged. “Helps me think through it.”
Greid let out a shaky, near-silent breath beside me as the conversation moved on to Elern’s job. I reached under the table to squeeze his thigh, hiding my grin behind my champagne flute.
I tried to help clear the table when dinner was over, but Una and Indi shooed me away and told me to go and relax with Greid and the others.
Before they’d even finished speaking, Greid was throwing a hasty, “Thanks, Mom,” over his shoulder and dragging me into the hallway.
“Everyone’s gone into the living room.” I laughed, clutching his hand.
“I know.” He stopped and turned to cup my face in his hands, grinning down at me. “Wanna go make out in my old room?”
My eyes darted to the living room doorway. If we vanished for a while, they’d all know. And I was stuffed from dinner, but…
“Yeah, let’s do it.”
His eyes flared, grin turning mischievous as he grabbed my hand again and led me down the stairs to the bedrooms in the basement level of the house. I tried to take in the countless framed photos lining the wall, catching glimpses of Greid—so much smaller than the rest of his siblings at first, until he gradually caught up with them in size, becoming just as awkwardly skinny and lanky in the photos where they were all crowded together.
It was so nice here. A little chaotic, sure—nothing like the unnervingly tranquil atmosphere of the cult, where there’d been way more people but they’d all floated around with creepy smiles on their faces. This was real. A real family. They all teased each other mercilessly, but clearly loved each other and doted on their mother.
And I could see why. Una was amazing. I’d never really wished for a mother. I’d never known mine, and I’d had Violet, though she’d always been my aunt. Still my parent, still the person who’d raised me, but my aunt. Not my mother.
“I really like your family, Greid,” I said quietly as he led me down the hallway and opened a door, hurriedly ushering me in.
“Well, they’re your family now too.” He cringed as he shut the door and turned to face me. “Sorry, was that super corny?”
I bit my lip as it wobbled, the backs of my eyes suddenly burning. For some reason, I was a split second away from bursting into tears. “No, it’s not corny.”
“Shit, berry…” Greid cupped my face, gazing down at me with a worried expression. “What’s wrong? Is it too much? Please don’t cry. You know it’ll set me off, and Nuni will be able to tell and he’ll never let me live it down.”
I let out a watery laugh. “I’ll punch him if he makes fun of you. Or think of another insulting nickname.”
